It has been a while since I last drove the coupe (and even longer since I posted on the Forum!) but I needed to move it out of the garage on the weekend. Flat battery, so jump started it with the the trusty Skoda Superb. All good, except the blowers in the cab were now stuck on full and wouldn't turn off even after turning the engine off (!).
Went for a drive and after 10minutes the blowers shut off completely on their own. All fuses fine. Tried wiggling the cables down near the fan motor, resistor and climate control box. No luck. Remove centre console, all looks OK behind the switch. Sent out a couple of SOS posts on Facebook but most folks are in the UK and it's probably 2am so not much help forthcoming!
Reached the end of my tether and booked it in to an auto electrician for this morning. Got in car, battery flat again, jump started car, arrived at auto electrician all hot and sweaty due to having no blowers (very humid here in Brisbane this time of year). Went to pop the bonnet and the cable has gone all floppy. Snapped cable. Spent about 10mins fumbling around with a screw driver prodding and poking at the mechanism through the grille, no luck. By now it's pouring rain and the auto electrician has better things to do than stand around watching me. So I gave up and drove home, spent the next hour trying to follow the how to guide on this forum but all the photo links are broken apart from one very handy drawing of the mechanism - bingo, finally got the bonnet released using a long tent peg of all things.
Rang auto electrician to see if I can come back but he's busy now until next week.
So I've got a car with a dead battery, broken bonnet release cable, dead blower/fans (AC also broken incidentally) living in the sub-tropics approaching summer. Oh and the centre console is half off, and the bonnet release plastic handle is sitting on the floor (auto electrician helpfully managed to pull it off completely) so I'll have to figure out how that goes back together.
I remember now why I rarely drive this thing anymore. Think I'll stick with the Skoda.
Anyone else ever had days like these with their coupe??
Once the grille is off you may have enough cable left to reposition the collar-with-grub-screw. If not a 2m bike cable will do it, check at the slot in the handle what shape the cable end is. Hope the two attached pics help.
Meanwhile temporarily tie a cable to the bonnet spring and trail it outside the bonnet so you still open it after closing
With the centre console off you take the opportunity to check the contacts as described here and make sure the little fan is working and not clogged up with fluff.
Thanks Edinburgh! Yes those photos are super helpful. I'm hoping I can get by using the existing cable - it has snapped at the loop part up near the latch mechanism so might be able to fix with a bit of new wire crimped with the existing cable clamp if that makes sense.
I have had many of those days and because of that Coop Paranoia is alive and well here
After a few issues over the year (teething problems is the nicest thing I can say) and being a weekend car I have a procedure before I drive off:-
1. Approach car and walk round checking there are no new dings or scratches that may have suddenly appeared. 2. Check condition of paint and note it looks slightly more faded than last time 3. Check Tyres visually look ok. 4. Unlock car and open boot to check for any water ingress. 5. Gently pull bonnet release hoping it wont snap 4. Check oil, Brake fluid reservoir, coolant and look around for any thing "Out of place" 5. Get in car, deep breath turn key press start button. 6. Check clutch operation, release handbrake and drive off 7. Enjoy drive while keeping eye on Temp gauge, Oil pressure and lastly speedo 8. Get home, switch off and check for any leaks under car and walk away until next week
Although there is a step zero: find out where the car actually is... it's in dry storage somewhere in Worcestershire but I don't actually know the address